Scottish Catholic Observer

MASS at St Catherine’s Church in Bethlehem, where the Midnight vigil is celebrated at Christmas, is not a shabby way to start the day. Singing Angels we have Heard on High and Adeste Fideles here is a privilege.

Archbishop Tartaglia told both the blue and yellow bus pilgrims, together for Mass, that he was ‘deeply, deeply, touched’ by yesterday’s solemn visit to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He repeated that he had hoped the pilgrimage would give him ‘a deeper sense of The Lord in which I believe.’

At the grotto venerated as the birth place of Jesus, we faced our first real queue of the pilgrimage to stop at the Star of David marking the spot. But first thing this morning, at the Grotto of the Holy Innocents, two nappy pins twisted into a cross prompted a prayer.

Lunch at the Caritas Baby Hospital brought home the trials facing Palestinians, as did leaving and entering Bethlehem via the wall on an ‘easier’ route than the one locals face every day. The wall here in Bethlehem carries Banksy art.

In the afternoon pilgrims up to the uphill climb joined Archbishop Tartaglia to tackle the walk to to the Church of the Visitation In Ein Karem. Here they were rewarded in singing Marian hymns with his Grace, a moving gospel reading which he encouraged us to join him in and a very special decade of the Rosary in the upper modern chapel.

Tonight Scottish pilgrims were welcomed in Bethlehem at Civic reception at Bethlehem Municipality. Glasgow is twinned with Bethlehem and former Glasgow Lord Provost Alex Mosson is helping to lead this pilgrimage.

Tomorrow, Gethsemane.